The BIG Wedding -- Hue's Traditions

While one of our reasons for returning to Vietnam was to attend our dear friend Vinh's wedding (Vinh is the TDTU Labor Relations Lecturer with whom we worked so closely when teaching last visit), we expected to be able to attend the parties that are hosted first by the bride's parents, then by the groom's parents and then often by the couple (see a pattern here -- make every one happy!).  In fact, Vinh and her family as well as the groom's family all invited us plus Helena and Joe (they are at TDTU teaching two Labor Relations classes this semester) to attend ALL the ceremonies -- both traditional and modern.

Vinh's family is from Hue.  Hue is often called the heart and soul of Vietnam as it is the location where most of the emperors lived (in amazing splendor).  Hue seems to take special pride in maintaining ancient traditions (many are Vietnamese Buddhist) and in preserving the ancient history, pagodas, temples, etc. of Vietnam.  Hue is where the Forbidden City/Imperial Palaces are located.  Much of this history was destroyed in the American War with fierce block-by-block fighting and USA bombing, but is slowly being re-built.  The Perfume River, the large traditional town market and other historical sites make Hue a real favorite not just for foreign tourists, but equally for Vietnamese on vacation.

We all arrived a couple of days early so we got to watch as Vinh's home was decorated, extended family arrived and special food was prepared.  The day before the wedding we eat a special meal with Vinh's family and Thinh (the spouse!) consisting of traditional foods that were also offered at the family ancestral shrine located on the top floor of the house (most Vietnamese houses strive to have several floors -- first floor for family gatherings and eating as well as oldest generation bedrooms, second floor with smaller living space and "parent's" bedroom, top floor for youngest generation and family ancestral shrine).  Bit-by-bit house was decorated in red with lots of beautiful floral birds, drapes, slogans. The families had a special joint lunch to finalize all the wedding plans -- more great food and fun.  The families had already met as part of the traditional engagement events -- even extended family, so the tone was way more fun than planning.

The day of the wedding we gathered with Thinh's family at the hotel lobby at 7:00am - in the morning - where all the groom's attendants (dressed in traditional men's ao dai) were assigned different traditional/symbolic offerings to carry (via car caravan) to Vinh's family house.  At this point Hollis got recruited (in his suit and tie!!) to carry one of the items as part of the procession.  Lots of photos were taken and we all loaded up into the caravan.

When we arrived at Vinh's street, every one climbed out (not easy for an old lady in an ao dai!) and Hollis and Thinh's oldest relative went to Vinh's house asking permission for us all to enter.  With permission, the entire procession entered the house and made our way up to the top floor to gather near the ancestral shrine -- Vinh's family on one side, Thinh's on the other side.  The father of each family made formal introductions of all family and both parents exchanged symbolic gifts.  At this point Vinh made her entrance wearing an incredibly beautiful red ao dai with an embroidered peacock.  Most elder family members (mostly grandmothers -- also wearing gorgeous ao dais), parents and Vinh and Thinh conducted a simple ceremony (of commitment).  Then the gift giving began in front of the shrine -- gold is traditional in Hue, so both Vinh and Thinh received rings, bracelets, etc.  At that point Vinh moved to the side of Thinh's family.  Wow!  For someone who does not do weddings, this was quite the experience -- we really do feel honored to have the families include us!

Afterwards everyone headed back downstairs  for tea and a light snack.  And lots of photos!  The entire day was photographed and videotaped to the max!

Finally we all headed to a large banquet hall where all the family, friends, co-workers (Vinh's father works at a bank in Hue, Vinh's mother is a renowned doctor of herbal and traditional medicine who also teaches) in Hue and beyond gathered for entertainment (professional and family -- seems like a lot of the men in this family SING WELL), food, drinking and more FUN.  It was one hell-of-a-party.
By 2:30pm we headed back to our hotel to collapse.

Next we travel by train to Thinh's home town to celebrate with his family as host.  So stay tuned!



   

What's different this time?

While the Vietnamese people are still incredibly friendly, open with their opinions, cooking outrageously delicious FRESH food and answering all our questions, we are observing some changes.  Like we shared with our friends during our earlier trip 2012-13, Vietnam is moving forward so quickly that dramatic changes happen overnight.  We can now SEE these changes BIG TIME.

For example...
The Ton Duc Thang University TDTU campus here in HCMC has two brand new classroom and office buildings with very modern equipment and amenities.  All of the canteens (cafeterias) have been re-modeled plus now there is a new canteen just for lecturers, professors and administrative staff.  We're eating with the students still!  Because the University plans to start construction of "the largest library in Vietnam" in the near future, motor bike parking has also been re-located and expanded.  There are more air conditioned classrooms.  And enrollment continues to increase.

BTW the ONLY smart way to travel is via motor bike or bus or train -- way too much traffic for cars!  And we are thrilled to notice that in a few locations (one being right in front of the TDTU campus) that there are lighted crosswalks for pedestrians!  It is still an adventure to cross in front of any and all traffic.

The Labor Relations & Trade Union Department (our "home") has grown from 400 students when we were here 2013 to more than 600 students!  The university entrance exam score has risen more than 4 points in just a couple of years -- this means the department's students have increased their academic averages and the disciplines' standards significantly just in 2 years.  "Our" department now ranks very close to other departments much older than Labor Relations!

The entire University is implementing what they call "Top 100 Program" drawing from global higher education standards (something some of us might want to debate!) so there is SERIOUS intent and specific goals to be reached by teaching and and research and administrative staff as well as students ranging from English language proficiency to research.  Part of our work here is to help design some of the new Labor Relations courses.  There now is more flexibility with course content, teaching methods and exams (often moving away from multiple-choice to essays and case studies.

Students still impress us with how YOUNG they are and SERIOUS.  We have seen several slogans though bragging that study hard also means play hard!  While male students still wear black slacks or jeans and white shirts and women wear the traditional ao dai two days-a-week, we are definitely seeing shorter skirts, ripped jeans, colorful "sneakers", tights, layered t-shirts, English slogans and brands -- global fashion is certainly here. 

Final observation for this posting is that TDTU has launched the "English Zone" -- a great physical space located in one on the breeze ways between buildings (protected by new glass doors for frequent rain storms).  While there are a couple of lecturer/professor mentors, the Zone is completely run by volunteer student coordinators, open daily from 8am until 5pm.  OF course, the idea is that students from any and all departments attend in-between classes and jobs to practice English speaking, listening and writing.  The emphasis is on FUN learning with library (any one want to donate books at all reading levels, let us know!), games, art, music, group activities, parties, etc.  We are concentrating our English Zone work with the Labor Relations students starting this Friday.  Leanna and Hollis having FUN with students!  We'll try to post some photos!

  

Meet the YOUNG TDTU Communications Department

When we were here two years ago we met an incredibly talented and energetic student -- senior -- who was EVERYWHERE on campus photographing and videotaping students, activities, academic events, sports, major historic celebrations.  Ahn really made an impression on us.  He is now the director of STDTU (communications/PR) here on campus, reporting directly to one of the University Vice Presidents!  The department has 3 employees plus they work with lots of student interns.  Some of the interns are majoring in communications, but others are just interested in photography, film, etc.

We met with Ahn to get re-acquainted and learn more about what he's up to.  The department office is not large and is an "open floorplan" with enough room for two desks (with latest computer hardware and software), one meeting table, bookcase (some books but mostly equipment), whiteboard for planning and scheduling and handmade decorations.

Ahn is having a great time with his work and mentoring students.  He gave a us a "tour" of some of the Youtube videos TDTU has posted (probably close to 200!) some of which are clearly aimed at recruiting high school students and their parents to consider TDTU for higher education.  Others are targeted to various academic disciplines here in Vietnam and globally.  Quite a few are pure entertainment for the TDTU students -- "flash mobs", cultural performances, sports, interviews, reports on student clubs.  The development of technical skills, design, editing (audio and visual) -- it's exciting to see such young staff and students moving forward so quickly!  Ahn seems to really enjoy the drone photographic and filming.

So for example, posted with this blog are some of Hollis' photos from recent student performance competition and the National Vietnam University Soccer Tournament (hosted by TDTU).  IF you check out TDTU on Youtube you will see great videos posted even quicker than we could post these photos!  BTW, the entertainment at the soccer tournament (TDTU came in 2nd place) was a Vietnamese heavy metal rock star!  So we had TDTU's modern soccer stadium, students wearing traditional ao dai, dignitaries from the state-owned-enterprise Viettel who sponsored event -- and a Vietnamese heavy metal rocker!  Gotta love this place!

FLYING TO VIETNAM AND BEGINNING THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF OUR EDUCATION WORK AT TDT

Sunrise on the way

With a long overnight fly, we flew from LA International on a  mid-night Wednesday morning flight arriving in Vietnam on Thursday morning - lost a day! We were tired but feeling the adrenalin power when Ms Vinh met us with a wonderful smile, as bright as the sunrise that flooded our airplane shortly before we touched down in Taiwan. We had last seen Ms Vinh 20 months ago in February of 2014 if you don't including skype(ing) with her.

Towering Clouds to the South

And it was a spectacular dawn as these photos show with a colorful display of cloud formations that constantly changed as we jetted along at about 540 mph over a dark ocean. Here are a couple of pictures pushing the dream to reality.

 Our ride was a Boeing Aircraft 777, one of the newest ships flying on the co-share airline of Vietnam Airlines-China Air-Delta.  FYI: Economy met our needs and we flew 13 plus hours on the first leg of our journey.  The second leg on down to Ho Chi Minh City was pretty much 4 hours from lift off to re-entry so we spent somewhere over 17 hours airborne.  Leanna slept a fair amount but truthfully I didn't get much shut eye even though I attempted sleep.  My big excite for many hours was watching the life "Three D" video presentation of our progress complete with the miles traveled, elapsed time, and other not very important data that didn't shorten the hours or the trip.

A little earlier.

Enough of that.  Once we reached HCMC and jumped into the waiting van with Ms Vinh we were off for District 7 of the City and our University, Ton Duc Thang University (TDT) named for the 2nd President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and a hero of the Vietnamese people. As we approached TDT we could see the two new buildings that have been completed in our 20 month absence.  These buildings are next to Building B, where we worked on our previous visit and where we will have office space again this time.  Ms Vinh accompanied us to our new dorm room that is situated under the football stadium seating.  We moved in a little bit and then walked through the new buildings and visited the new student Canteen/cafeteria on the 10th floor of one building.  More on that in another article along with pictures.  Dean Hoa of Lao Dong and Cong Doan took us to lunch -- first taste of delicious food! We wandered about the campus for a while finding some old friends and just appreciating the opportunity to work again at TDT. Then we CRASHED to sleep.

Friday morning (which was Thursday for us) we felt a lot more refreshed and ready to go.  At 9am we met two friends who are teaching labor studies here, Joe B. and Helena W., and attended a collective bargaining simulation starring their students using a Vietnam plastics factory scenario written by Joe and Ms Helena.  It was well played out by the students and was both interesting and fun to be there as visiting instructors.  After the class was over Ms Leanna and Ms Vinh took off to go buy material for a new ao dai for Leanna and arrange for tailoring.  About 4pm we all attended a pre- Women's Day activity sponsored by the Union. The activity was a cook contest where the male staff of the many departments had to cook for the female staff.  It was fun to watch the men work away making food and hoping to win the award for their department.  The food was delicious and good looking.  Of course, after the judging we also ate the food and it was fun to go from table to table sampling and enjoying it.

Ms La and Leanna

LD&CD food contest preparation team

In the picture to the left we have Leanna and Ms La, one of the directors and founders of the University and the former Dean of our  Faculty of LD&CD. On the right you see the staff of our department who prepared, without Leanna and my help, our entry in the competition.

Helena Worthen and Joe Berry

Dean Loan, Union President

Saturday we watched part of the football (soccer) match going on in the stadium.  TDT won their game and are still in the running in the 10 day tournament that is taking place here at the U.  Early evening we watched TDT has Talent contest/show and watched hours of the student competitors vying for the prizes.  

Our First Pho made at home!

Hello everyone, today 4-11-2014 I decided it would be appropriate to make a short blog post to "celebrate" Leanna and I having our first home made pho soup.

The post is with pictures of the first cauldron of Pho we made at our home in the USA .  We used a mix we bought at a market for the spicing but we prepared the meat, other vegetables, and got the greens to serve with the soup.  It was really exciting and fun to make our own Pho and eat at home.  Soon, after we get a little more experience making pho, we will invite some friends over for a breakfast of American pancakes and Pho.

We will soon begin working on a book about our time in Vietnam using much of the material on our blog.

Celebrating Tet in Hanoi, Sa Pa, Ha Long Bay and Hue.

Hue is a very old and beautiful city situated on the Perfume River in the central part of Vietnam close to the East Sea that extends east from Vietnam toward the Philippines and other nations in the Pacific. On the first of February we flew into Hue from Hanoi to explore this historical city and celebrate Tet with our friend Vinh and her family. But first we'll share the earlier travels just before Tet...

On January 25^th we began our trek to the Northwest part of Vietnam by flying to Ha Noi from Ho Chi Minh City in the midst of the Tet Lunar New Year rush to return to home to family villages by thousands of Vietnamese heading to the rural provinces to be with family and friends. Luckily our driver had delivered us to the airport about 3.5 hours before our flight, because it took about 2.5 hours to get our baggage checked and to receive our boarding passes. Now we understand our Vietnamese friends' warnings that Tet is like all USA holidays combined! Once we reached Ha Noi we met our guide Thiep and our driver. We spent the next two days and nights in Ha Noi visiting the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the HCM Mausoleum, and several other sites including a long walk halfway across the Long Bien Bridge -- the railway bridge that was bombed many times by the USA during the American War (to no avail as the Vietnamese immediately rebuilt it or used alternative routes to carry on). This was at the same time that we bombed the dikes and irrigation systems in the North that were necessary for food production. Of course this caused hunger and famine for the Vietnamese, but in the spirit of people's war they carried on with great faith that victory would be theirs.

Our Hanoi Friends

Tet Lights on a lake in Hanoi

Next to the Mausoleum we visited the traditional stilt house where President Ho Chi Minh lived instead of the Presidential Palace – he considered the beautiful structure liberated from the French as “too much” and preferred to live in the stilt house (built like a traditional rural farmer's house) until he died at the age of 79. Incidentally, when he had the house built he refused to allow the installation of a toilet within the house in keeping with the practices of the rural people. I would note that there were literally thousands of Vietnamese visiting these sites when we were, celebrating the Tet holidays when they are off work and families can enjoy the beauty of their country. In the HCM Museum our party of three moved quickly as we had lots to cover, including the aforementioned Long Bien Bridge and then the Old District market that lies next to the railroad and covers a number of square blocks. The streets in the market are named by the goods that used to be sold there: a silk street, vegetable street, beef street, and so forth. Thus family shoppers or the different classifications of merchants would quickly find the items they needed to purchase or barter and get on with it. Our friend Carol found a type of mushroom that she was looking for and was able to purchase a nice quantity right there in the market. The woman running the herbal medicine shop cut it up, ground it and packaged it while we waited.

Black Hmong mother and child

From Hanoi we headed north by sleeper train to Lao Cai near the border with China. After a short drive we were in Sapa – a beautiful mountain town with picturesque streets, houses, parks – and lots of tourists. The town is surrounded by several ethnic group's rural villages that are reached by HIKING up and down hilly roads. It took a couple of days of walking, but we able to visit the villages of the Black Hmong and Red Dao to see up close the typical houses, rural primary and secondary schools, rice fields, water-pump rice threshing, wine distilling and handicrafts. With 45 ethnic groups living in Vietnam, there is debate and some controversy about education, balancing economic development and cultures as well as the impact of tourism. With the mountains, waterfalls, mist and sunshine, terraced rice fields and colorful ethnic dress, the area is breathtakingly beautiful. While improved housing and roads, new schools, electricity (and satellite TV) and other signs of improved living conditions are there, it is clear that sustainable economic development is a work-in-progress.

Rural village school

Sa Pa Market

Sa Pa skyline

Terraces and water buffalo

Walking to the Red Dao Village

Nap and feeding combo

Friend Carol with Red Dao woman

From Sapa we headed east to HaLong Bay – another UNESCO and world famous area of Vietnam. This bay full of limestone islands is impressive and popular with Vietnamese and world tourists. During Tet the bay is not as crowded as other times of the year, but we were still amazed (and worried) about the number of cruise boats – of course we were on one! We were lucky to experience both fog and sunshine during our day-and-night-on-the-water while we saw dramatically beautiful islands, floating fishing villages, an enclosed lagoon with golden monkeys. And, as always, the food on the boat was GREAT!

Limestone Islands

Sunset Ha Long Bay

Lagoon

Floating fishing village

Our final stop to celebrate Tet was Hue where we had a wonderful visit with our dear friend Vinh and her family while visiting the Citadel, Forbidden City, several Vietnamese king's tombs, traveled by boat on the Perfume River and ate as many famous Hue dishes as possible during three days. Vinh and her family shared their home and a traditional Tet meal with us – what a great moment to meet with the parents, grandfather and brother of this exceptional woman who was our teaching partner and friend all the while we were in Vietnam. Vinh and her brother showed us a nearby village with the oldest covered bridge in the area – and FUN VILLAGE Tet market where folks were playing a complicated traditional gambling game as part of the Tet celebrations. We also got to visit the high school where Ho Chi Minh, General Giap and other famous Vietnamese leaders studied – same high school Vinh and her brother attended. Everywhere you look you see living history and awareness of ties between generations. Visiting the Citadel and Forbidden City (where generations of Vietnamese kings held court) once again reminded us of the horrible destruction and death of the American War – ancient historic sites bombed and destroyed in the midst of an important Vietnamese city. With help from Vietnamese donors, government and some foreign governments and NGOs, Vietnam is slowly, lovingly restoring some of these historic buildings. Hue is known as the “heart” of Vietnam with a large number of pagodas and temples, traditional architecture and slower, traditional pace. It was so special to get introduced to Hue by Vinh and her family!

Ancient bridge that is national treasure

Friends at ancient bridge

Coffee with Vinh's family in Hue on Perfume River

Forbidden City restored and destroyed

Vinh's father and Carol 

Vinh's parents heading home after Pho and coffee

Celebrating Tet at Vinh's home with FAMILY!

Beautiful Perfume River - perfume from Sandlewood
Trees.

From Hue we flew to HCMC where we took quick naps before heading back to the USA – after getting to say goodby to some of our special TDT friends at the airport. Even after a week in Los Angeles, we still aren't sure if we've really finished our Vietnam adventure. There are lots more photos – which we'll figure out how to post for painless viewing. So watch for the photo alert. We'll also be participating in a workshop at the annual United Association for Labor Education UALE conference in March in Los Angeles (check out the UALE website for more details), hoping to recruit more volunteer teachers to go to Vietnam.

We thank and recognize each and all of you who contributed solidarity gifts and money for solidarity gifts that we shared with many students, workers, union leaders, professors, children, peoples organizations and Vietnamese friends while we were in Vietnam. You were a real part of this adventure concretely showing YOUR international friendship. We shared your stories with the Vietnamese when we shared your gifts, so YOUR friendship now resides in Vietnam!

Onward to a 2014 full of international friendship, peace and progress for workers everywhere!

Here is a very short video of a pump used by the Black Hmong to operate a mill that grind their rice for them, Quiet, efficient, clean and doesn't dirty the water.  Some folks might call it primitive or quaint but for the job it is better than an iphone, a giant electric plant to get some power down to a house hold, or a

neo-fascist corporation overcharging consumers for glorified stuff that ends up in the closet.